murder or self defense?

one thing seems common in the past years is that natural "disasters" and their related death tolls are good business for the news media. the ironic component to a headline that reads "storm kills #" or "earthquake kills xx" is that in fact what has usually killed them is the building they were in or the space they had chosen to be in or some infrastructure or ours succumbing to nature.

we choose to live on coast lines with water levels that are not exactly the same always. we choose to build buildings made of materials that if they fall upon us will kill us. it is all our choice in the matter, the earth just continues on its cycles and we are a participant.

but here is a interesting thought, what if the earth in fact has a natural cleansing cycle, a self defense mechanism of sorts? wouldn't that just throw off our little plans for world domination?

on a serious note, we clearly have become ignorant of the risks of living on the planet to the extent where we are largely unprepared for the surpises. I struggle with this as part of my insides wants to spend time and money prepare myself and my family for just these things. as time goes on I see that I have not missed my obligation but that false sense of security is not a good feeling. Here in Manitoba a complete power loss in the dead of January would be the real surprise and I don't know how long we would last. Loss of water system would be not much better but food stores we have due to the nature of cooking from scratch regularly you have the need to have ingredients on hand.

our dependance on the capitalist system that supplies all of our needs puts us firmly in the grips of business leaders and I think we are lucky our planet is not more violent than it is.

so, while their is harm resulting from our occuputation of this planet and living amongst its cycles, could the news media not cover the story differently? does it all have to be about death and blame for the lack of protection? could it not instead be a story of natural science education and preparedness? can it not be about a story of survival rather than loss?

I grow weary of the headlines and I am reminded of my stopping of watching and listening to news and the need for me to stop reading the news websites. drama has a place but it is not in the news media.